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AES 2.0 Officially Released for FSX and FS2004

Right after you landed and departed on the runway, a follow me van will be waiting for you that brings you to the gate or parking of YOUR CHOICE. It adapts its speed to your taxi speed and even blinks its turn signals to alert you to a turn! As you get close to the gate you will see a 3d marshaller with detailed animation that guides you to your location and even signs you to cut your enigine(s). Then he plugs in his headphone and tells you the blocks are in location. At the same moment the jetway starts moving towards your aircraft and will PERFECTLY align to the door on your aircraft (any aircraft!). If the gate has dual jetways BOTH will work. Even the rubber seal that keeps out the rain is animated.

When you depart the jetway is moved back (you even hear the warning siren) and the ground crew will hook up the push back truck. Of course they will inform you of progress and tell you what to do. The push back is fully automated and AES even knows EXACTLY where to put the aircraft. The push back truck looks great and even has engine sound. During the push back you are told that you can start engines (but only when the area is clear). At the end of the push back the ground crew will signal you all is clear Complete Feature List:

Pushback with sound, animated objects and automatic perfect alignment

Push-In for backward parking positions

Pushback now available as TBL (towbarless) that lift the nosewheel and conventional that uses a towbar to move the aircraft

Animated gates that link up perfect to the doors of the aircraft (unlike other system),

Moving service vehicles that link up perfectly to the aircraft (catering, air stairs, cargo, buses, cleaning and refueling services)

De-icing in winter

Boarding passengers with sound

Follow me car to show the way to the parking position (looks a lot better than those strange arrows used by Microsoft!)

Sound effects while rolling over the centerline lights at the runway

Simulation of water or snow at the runway

Highly detailed (3d) marshaller at all parking positions that do not have docking assistance systems

The AES Addon itself is free, however you are required to purchase "credits" in exchange for enabling AES addons at airports you pick.

Some airports are free, others can cost anywhere from 1 to 5 credits. Every airport includes a 10 minute demo.

10 Credits = ~$18.00 USD.

List of compatible ADDON airports and # of credits here [Link].Link to product page, with videos. [Link, Story via SimFlight]

Screenshots:

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

Vox ATC

VoxATC is a huge advance in Flight Simulation that adds a whole new dimension to the experience. VoxATC is the first ATC add-on for FSX that has been developed with integrated voice recognition. Talk to the controllers using standard ATC phraseology and what you say will be heard. Just like in the real world, requests must be properly constructed, instructions complied with and read back correctly.

Features:

Fully integrated Voice Recognition

Intelligent agent controllers and AI aircraft

VFR and IFR flights

All ATC units are included (Clearance Delivery, Ground, Tower, Departure, Approach, Center and Flight Service Stations)

Unicom and Multicom operations handled

Traffic have user configurable call signs and user set levels for different airspace types

SIDs, STARs, waypoints and airways are referred to by name

Enroute Holds

Emergencies

Have a look at a video here. [Link] And the product page here (With Demo). [Link] Mark says that after trying it, Vox ATC seems so-so. But try the 7 day demo and see if it is for you!

Logitech Flight System G940

Force feedback joystick: Control your aircraft with confidence. Force feedback effects allow you to feel its movement as well as its reaction to wind shear, buffeting, turbulence, and g-forces.

Dual throttle: Precisely control multi-engine aircraft using the two 8-way hat switches. Or lock the levers when you need to operate your engines in sync.

Interactive, programmable throttle-base buttons: Keep in control with buttons that illuminate red, green, amber, or off to indicate the status of critical aircraft systems—gear up, flaps down, and many others—just like they would in a real cockpit.

X-Plane Congress 2009: X-Plane 10 Road Map & 9.30 Final Soon

The X-Plane Congress 2009 took place on the weekend of the 23rd May, 2009 in France. Some 85 people attended from all over the world to discuss the future of X-Plane. From that, we learn that the final version of X-Plane 9.30 is near, and some potential features about X-Plane 10:

$100 Hamburger Flight

Fly your buddies mail route in the Grenadines island chain in the Southern Caribbean starting in St.Vincent. Your buddy flies a non-turbo prop aircraft. You know what he flies though! GPS is allowed on this flight due to he did not have time to forward any sectionals. Keep as close to the schedule as possible so he doesn’t hear about it. It’s a Hamburger flight on a timetable.

Want a great spot on UNION to hang out and eat, get a lift out to a small island out on the reef called Happy Island. This is a great story. One of the locals, named Janti, decided that he wanted to clean up the town of Cliffton. There were piles and piles of discarded conch shells that were littering the beaches. So he collected them all and took them out to the end of the reef. It was enough conch shells to build an island. So with a little concrete, some sand, and a couple of palm trees donated by nearby Palm Island, he built himself an island. Today Janti lives on Happy Island, he has built a bar and a restaurant, and even a lobster pool. As you dinghy up Janti comes out to grab your line and always says, “Welcome to Happy Island” with a huge smile on his face. And in fact it is impossible to be anything but happy here. It is a great place to go to watch sunset, have a bar-b-que, or just chill . It is a very special island indeed. Eat Up!

Share Your Results...

Share your results and thoughts on the Hamburger Flight at the Fszone forums! [Link] We love to hear from everyone!

FullTerrainX (Orbx Simulations) Freeware Products

Mark and Eric want to point our listeners to some freeware and demo scenery and repaints from Orbx Simulations. [Link] Check them out, they're free!

Voicemail & E-Mails

Voicemail:

What is a Hamburger Flight?

I heard the reference to the hamburger flight on the podcast on FSBreak.... and I saw a PDF on flightcrazy. But, where can I find out more that explains what it means "Hamburger Flight"? Is it a humorous reference of some sort? I'm not sure that I understand nor understand the $100 part. Would you have an informative link on that? Ted

$100 Hamburger, from Wikipedia: A $100 Hamburger is aviation slang for a private general aviation flight pilot who is looking for an excuse to fly, and decides to dine at a non-local airport. A $100 hamburger trip usually involves flying a short distance (less than two hours), eating at an airport restaurant, and flying home.

Creating FS Video

I enjoy listening to the show, I've been FSXing now for about a year. I'm a bit of a tweak-aholic. I 've down loaded gamebooster that I think Mark reccomended. TY it is quite good and its been updated for win7. Pretty good find. Would be cool if u guys good, give us some info on the best gear to make FSX video's, alternatives on fraps, or sony vega. And obviously, I want my FSX to run faster and prettier, so any think that does that gets thumbs up from me. I am very much a newbie and find the show informative, Eric thank you for often asking for, or giving a more thorough explanation of terms and concepts. Keep up the good work.

Suggestions: For screen capture, you can try to see if you are able to get a download link for Captigame [Link], it is in beta but we've heard only good things! For video editing, other than Vegas try Adobe Premiere Elements [Link], about $140 but free 30 day trial, however, Windows Movie Maker [Link] isn't a bad choice for free. On the Mac, check out Final Cut Express [Link] for $200, or but iMovie 2009 is decent too for free/low cost [Link]. As for better frame rates while capturing video (Especially with Fraps), try to replay your flight at 1/4 speed, and then speed up the captured video. This should make it look a lot smoother.

X Plane Question

I just wanted to take a look at your new site. Pretty cool. I was playing that helo game for about 15 minutes. Really addictive to find a helo I can actually fly. I have really been enjoying the Hamburger Flights and if you saw both my post on the "Mile High" you can see that I treat them like real world flights. Just enough of a challenge to make it interesting and doable for anyone who gives it a try. I still don't know why there is not more response from the listeners. I tried to make my post a running narrative as kind of a primer on what to look for for those who haven't tried it yet but there still seems to be little activity other than the ones who fly every flight. Just my thoughts on that. I read both flight sim magazines; Computer Pilot and PC Pilot and the current PC Pilot issue has a feature on an X-Plane aircraft add-on that had me salivating and thinking about buying the simulator. The aircraft is a turbine twin Mitsubishi and the pictures in the article really show a nice product. The reviewer had many good things to say and knowing that you are an X-Plane pilot I thought I would pass the developers site on to you for your perusal. www.x-scenery.com. Its right there on the home page. After seeing that I was inspired to try the demo again but I can't get the eyepoint in the VC like it is in FS9 and FSX. So my question is;'Can I get the X-Plane VC to perform identical to FS?" Again, I really enjoy the show and your input is priceless. Many thanks Chuck H